Scarred Forest
by LemmyShine
Summary: After many, many generations, the Clans are still faced with turmoil. Our story centers around ThunderClan, who is in the midst of chaos.
1. Prologue

_Her yowl tore through the thick, night air like thunder. With a sickening thud she crashed to the ground at the foot of the ravine. Her once beautiful, golden fur was now messy and matted with clumps of blood and dirt. Her once bright, gorgeous green eyes were now a saddening lackluster hue, and they rolled up towards the top of her head. Lightning cracked into the sky, showing the mess of her remains for a brief moment before rain came pouring down from the heavens. A murder of the worst sort had just taken place, and StarClan were not happy for it._

_The usual peaceable air about the ThunderClan camp had changed quite drastically. As rain fell onto the cats' pelts mercilessly, they searched for their leader through parted eyelids, barely being able to see and smell for the weather. Their hearts ached with the fast-spreading knowledge that their leader had been on her last life, in spite of her young age. Their deputy, Hushedflight was the one who was possibly searching the hardest. The pads of his paws bled, rubbed raw from searching all of ThunderClan from the very earliest traces of dawn to the now settling dusk. Would he be the cat who had to hold a meeting to declare the leader dead? He did not want to be that cat... As these thoughts scratched at his mind like a wretched rat, he came to a small foothill, his belly rumbling with hunger and his paws numb with pain and tiredness, and he laid his weary self down for a moment. His eyes scanned the sky, and listlessly his gaze fluttered downward to see... He squinted against the rain, and also for straining to see...something. It was the body of a cat, he noticed with a small jolt. ...No...it was... His eyes snapped open, and did not blink out the fat drops of rain which landed in them.  
"Morningstar!" his yowl cracked in his throat, and his aching legs stood him up quickly. As though on cue, thunder cracked and then rumbled out. Morningstar was dead._


	2. Chapter 1

"Who did this?" That was the question of main importance to the ThunderClan cats. Another was one regarding how to give Morningstar a proper burial. She was not to be forgotten, surely, but Hushedflight had already forbidden any cat to venture down the steep, rocky slope of the place.

"There is no way to retrieve her," he addressed all the cats whom he had called for a meeting, "The only way to get Morningstar now is to jump down the ravine, and I won't let it happen."  
"Our stronger warriors could climb down there!" an ornery elder rasped out.  
"My mate could jump down there and jump back up!" a queen meowed out.  
"You lack faith in us, Hushedflight!" a warrior meowed, though he was more sympathetic than the two she-cats.  
His light gray fur was darkened and flat against his body from the rain. He almost looked weak from where he stood atop the Highrock, but he listened to his fellow cats calmly.  
Once they'd finished, he continued on, "I have nothing _but_ faith in you _all_. But you must see that even if you did get to the bottom of the ravine, carrying Morningstar back up with you would be far too difficult."  
"So we must let her rot there?" a cat, Morningstar's sister, hissed and spat. Hushedflight's blue eyes fell to his paws. There was nothing more he could say. "Rot" would not have been his word choice, but it remained true.  
Then another of the elders, the oldest cat in the Clan, stepped forward, and she meowed calmly, "StarClan will take good care of the business we can not finish. The thing that we must truly care for is this: How did this happen?" Her calm and wise presence seemed to cause the cats to settle, if only for a bit.  
"Thank you, Whisperclaw. You are right. We must first discover what happened to Morningstar..."

By the time the sun had completely disappeared from the sky, the rain had died down completely. All the weather had left ThunderClan were wet pelts, water-sodden paws, and teary eyes. But Hushedflight did differ from his Clanmates. He shifted where he lay, and his troubled mind fell restless. His claws flexed, and he could just barely keep his eyes closed. Of all the cats in the forest, besides perhaps Brightwhisker, Morningstar's sister, Hushedflight had surely been the closest to their leader. He was completely crushed by her death, but he could not show his Clan, of course. She was to him as...as water was to RiverClan. Thought he and Morningstar both...loved each other to some extent, they would never act on it. They both had strong willpowers, but it did hurt him sometimes.  
Finally, he sat up. There was no point in lying about in the warriors' den if he wasn't going to sleep. He would let the already-crowded cats have a bit of space to them. There would be much going on tomorrow, and they didn't need stiff joints and tired muscles. Hushedflight, now standing, walked from the den and into the still, night air. All was quiet except for the chirp of a cricket and the rustling of some prey in the forest. A chill went over him, and seeped through his fur and into his very bones. He looked up. The stars twinkled brightly, and Hushedflight could only imagine that Morningstar would be receiving a warm reception into StarClan skies. A bittersweet feeling washed over him so quickly that it made his legs feel weak. He...he missed her...and he knew what he had to do.  
First, he walked calmly, slowly, towards the tunnel that led out of camp. The warrior that stood guard at the outside of the tunnel simply looked at him as he passed, asking the deputy nothing. Hushedflight's quiet pawsteps turned into hastened ones, to more of a trot. Before he himself knew it, he was in a full-blown gallop, a determined fire in his ice-blue eyes. The moon was bright, and brighter still were the stars. It was almost as though they were cutting through the darkness to show him the way to his destination.


End file.
